The top benefit of a paperless office is the ability to save money by reorganizing paper files into a cohesive, user-friendly electronic system. A document management system, or content management system (CMS), will significantly cut down on employee time wasted day after day by manually filing and searching for physical documents. But is now the right time to make the switch? Let BuyerZone help you sort through all your options and provide you with free price quotes from several qualified vendors. You can compare offers and find the system that’s right for your business.

Allowance time! The federal government has put out its budget proposal for FY2016. And there’s plenty for Finance tucked among the funding requests.

Take a look at eight provisions with the potential for a major impact on you and your staffers, from Accounts Payable to Payroll to Benefits and beyond.

Some help, some hurt

Check out what could be coming your way:

1. Higher Section 179 expensing limits. Next year could be a good one to make some major purchases at your company. If this proposal passes, you’d enjoy a higher — much higher — Section 179 expensing option. The new proposed limit: $1 million. That’s a huge jump from the $25,000 you’re held to now.

2. Permanent Research Tax Credit. Just before this expired at the end of 2014, many thought it would be saved at the last minute. No such luck. If this proposal survives, this key tax credit would be extended permanently.

3. Other tax credits made permanent. The budget proposal looks to make some other tax credits permanent, such as:

The Work Opportunity Tax Credit

The Production Tax Credit, and

The New Markets Tax Credit.

4. Expanded Section 45R credit. If this part of the budget passes, the credit for small insurers offering employees health insurance would jump to businesses with up to 50 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees (compared to 25 currently) with a phase-out between 20 and 50 employees (it’s 10-20 now).

5. Lower corporate tax rate. The Taxman would take a smaller bite out of your profits if this proposal passes. The president is asking for the corporate tax rate to be reduced to 28%, with a 25% effective rate for domestic manufacturing. You might not want to hold your breath on this one though – this initiative hasn’t gotten anywhere recently.

Not every proposed change will put a smile on your face. Some could cost your company more money in 2016.

6. Greater retirement plan eligibility. You may soon find yourself having to include more folks in your company’s retirement plan. If this provision passes, any employee who works 500 hours or more for you for the past three years would be eligible for your retirement plan.

7. Paid FMLA leave. You know how costly Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave can be already … and you don’t even have to pay people for it! But that may soon come to an end, at least in certain states. The FY 2016 budget sets aside $2 billion for five states to launch pilot paid-leave programs. No word on which states would step up just yet.

8. Stepped-up Department of Labor (DOL) enforcement. No better time than now to make sure your company’s compliance is on-point. The DOL is getting billions to boost its enforcement efforts. Watch everything from worker classification to overtime pay and eligibility.

Congress still has to approve the budget and may make some changes before it’s final. We’ll keep you posted.

Once a manager gets over the initial misgiving of delegating jobs to staffers, another misgiving often comes up:

“I wonder how they’re doing – should I check up on them?”

Many times the manager in that position errs on the side of not “nagging” their staffers.

Turns out that can be a big mistake.

The Harvard School of Business studied managers who assigned projects to staffers. One group of managers rarely checked in with staff while another group checked on progress more frequently (at least two times a week).

Result: Managers who checked in more frequently got better results. Their projects moved along faster, often ahead of deadline, and a lot smoother (fewer mistakes).

To keep pace with the changing environment, employers must rethink their role in health coverage: how they sponsor, structure, and deliver health benefits, and how they manage costs while keeping employees healthy, productive, and satisfied. This white paper takes a look at the new strategies employers are using and offers a side-by-side look at how two key elements, funding and carrier strategies, combine to create a spectrum of solutions that employers can leverage to meet both business and employee needs.

In an unpredictable world, forecasting errors are unavoidable. This webinar offers some valuable guidance, in the form of Six Principles of Forecast Mastery, which point the way to a better future. Watch today and learn why treating forecast error as a friend can help you improve your organization’s performance.

There’s a dangerous disconnect afoot when it comes to benefits. And it could be costing your company big money.

Benefits aren’t cheap, which means that you want to be devoting your attention, financial and otherwise, to the ones that will provide the biggest payoff.

But there’s new evidence that might not be happening.

A recent survey by Accounttemps shows that what CFOs believe to be the most coveted benefits today aren’t … if you ask employees.

Take a look at what employees picked, vs. what CFOs thought they would, and see how you can keep your company focused on the right things.

What’s really on their wish lists

The question asked by Accounttemps: “Other than additional compensation, which one of the following do you believe would top your employees’ wish lists when it comes to their jobs this year?”

Here’s how your fellow CFOs peers answered:

Better benefit plan, such as enhanced healthcare plan: 41%

More vacation days: 19%

More scheduling flexibility, such as telecommuting or flexible work hours: 15%

More training or professional development opportunities: 12%

Other corporate perks, such as onsite meals and amenities, health and wellness or subsidized transportation: 11%

Now compare that to how employees ranked the same perks:

More vacation days: 30%

Better benefit plan, such as enhanced healthcare plan: 26%

More scheduling flexibility, such as telecommuting or flexible work hours: 19%

More training or professional development opportunities: 15%

Other corporate perks, such as onsite meals and amenities, health and wellness or subsidized transportation: 9%

Looks like many folks would take the time over a better health plan.

Of course this was a random sample of employees and your own workforce might rank these benefits differently.

But what the data really drives home is: You never want to assume what’s most important to people. If you do, you could be pumping dollars into initiatives that won’t be as appreciated as others might be.

So how can you ensure your efforts are best aligned?

Solutions that run the gamut

There are any number of strategies you can employ to keep your company’s efforts on track on the benefits front, from formal to informal:

Survey them. Want to know what your employees value most? Ask them. Even setting up a quick online survey can get folks to rank key benefits in order of importance to you. You’ll never get full consensus, but you’ll likely get a big picture trend of what they care about most.

Ask them casually. Hopefully you check in with your staffers beyond performance review season. Use those periodic touch bases to see what they care most about now. That’s where you’ll likely get anecdotal info that can help you better understand why employees value what they value. Bonus: You’re showing your team you’re interested in knowing what matters to them.

Look at what they do, not at what they say. Another subtle way to gauge what’s most important? See what staffers get most passionate about. Your Payroll people can tell you folks sure get riled up when it’s an issue with their paychecks, but what other things are people speaking up about? That may show you where to devote time and dollars.

And remember, no matter which of these (or combination of these) you do, it’s not a one-and-done situation. People’s priorities change, so you want to periodically check in to make sure nothing major has shifted.

But sometimes, it’s the only step you can take for the sake of your company’s bottom line – and in many cases, the person’s continued employment.

When it comes to docking an employee’s pay, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) says exempt employees’ pay cannot be affected by the number of hours worked or the quality of their work.

However: There are a few situations where its perfectly legal to dock exempt employees’ pay.

Make sure your Payroll staffers understand the rule by testing their knowledge. Have them decide whether the following statements are True or False. Then check their responses against the correct answers below (scroll down):

1. It’s permissible for an employer to deduct an exempt employee’s pay for a disciplinary suspension.

2. Employers can legally deduct an exempt employee’s pay when he or she is on a business trip.

3. Paying an exempt employee on Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave at an hourly rate is permissible.

THE ANSWERS

1. True. Under the FLSA, it’s legal to dole out unpaid disciplinary suspensions of one or more days to exempt employees who violate workplace rules. That’s if you have a written disciplinary policy in place that states as much and applies to all of your employees.

2. False. The FLSA prohibits companies from docking pay or running the clock on paid time off benefits when a worker’s absence is related to a business trip for the company. This common mistake can lead to employees losing their exempt status and becoming eligible for overtime pay.

3. True. You can convert a salaried employee to an hourly rate during the time he or she is on reduced-workweek FMLA leave without destroying the person’s exempt status.

Inspections and investigations by federal and state agencies are on the rise, across the board.

That’s largely because legislators have been consistently cutting agency budgets and staffing over the last six years. Whether it’s environmental protection, health and safety, labor standards, you name it — the regulators are counting on the public and disgruntled employees to clue them in to potential violations of all kinds.

One example: OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) inspections initiated by anonymous complaints jumped by more than 10% from six years ago. And the safety agency’s done all it can to keep those anonymous tips coming in.

Like many government agencies, OSHA encourages anonymous complaints from employees through phone calls, email and its website. These agencies aren’t shy about letting potential whistleblowers know they’re protected under federal laws.

Communication goes a long way

Companies that fire employees who report (anonymously or otherwise) potential violations end up on the losing end of whistleblower lawsuits.

But you can avoid those kinds of problems by letting employees know your company wants to know about concerns and issues that may affect the bottom line, workers’ safety, etc.

Here are three ways to assure people that their concerns are important:

Provide some form of suggestion box (an electronic version via the company intranet or a designated email account works just fine) for people to share suggestions.

Always, always thank people for their ideas and tell them what kind of action they should expect (and when).

Follow through on workable ideas. But explain why your company can’t follow through on non-valid suggestions.